


Alone In The Crowd

by Isilzha



Series: Beta 9 [1]
Category: Babylon 5, Babylon 5 & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-09
Updated: 2016-06-09
Packaged: 2018-07-13 23:10:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7142051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isilzha/pseuds/Isilzha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Basically a story within the overall plotline of B5, following a Centauri-Human teenage girl named Margaret Anne Teela. While this will (for the most part) follow the episodes, the official plotline is on the back burner for now. Right now this is all about Margaret Anne, and her struggle with herself, other races, and society.<br/>Please comment with anything you think would make this better, or ideas for where it could go! I am always willing to take constructive criticism, and I welcome your help.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	Alone In The Crowd

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic on AO3; please be gentle! ;-)  
> Please comment with anything you think would make this better, or ideas for where it could go! I am always willing to take constructive criticism, and I welcome your help.  
> You can find me on Google+ as Caitlin Murray (Babylon 5 logo is my profile picture). If you like this, send me a quick message! I'll do my best to respond to everyone!

Margaret Anne Teela. The last Human-Centauri hybrid her world would know. Of course, she wasn't alone in her biracialness; there were other children, all much older than her though. She felt alone sometimes, and school didn't help. Her birth was no accident, no matter how the other children at school tormented her; her parents were betrothed almost a century before she was born. An old promise, she was told; made by two gullible noble families.  
  
When Earth first made contact with the Centauri, they were told that their world (Beta 9) was an old, long-lost Centauri colony. Several on Earth believed it, including her ancestors, the Westcombs – an old European family with just enough royal blood to be privileged like one. But only a few went as far as to promise a descendent of theirs to a Centauri noble's descendent. The Teela family was a smaller noble house, but they knew that having a betrothal several generations into the future would increase their power and pocketbooks. And so, her mother Josephine and her father Anton, as the eleventh generation after the promise was made, were married and produced a child (Margaret Anne) about a year later.  
  
Now you might be thinking “eleventh generation? Why eleventh?” Well, the answer is simple; while all the other Centauri noble houses were promising ten generations in advance, (ten being some sort of lucky number), the Teelas had to outdo them all and go for the eleventh generation. Pure arrogance; the simple need to be different than all the others.  
  
While almost all of Earth was outraged when they discovered that Centauri and Humans weren't related, the Westcombs did not mind the “clerical error” made by confusing Beta 9 and Beta 12. Instead, they readily accepted the information and kept their promise to the Teelas; figures, since it gave them power and prestige in the outer circles of EarthGov  
  
Listening to stories about her ancestors and the ancient promise, Margaret Anne couldn't help but wonder if they thought about her when they made that promise.  
  
Did they think about how different I would be, how isolated, being a generation behind the others? How shunned I would be by my fellow nobles? By the xenophobes? By society in general?  
  
These questions often filled her head when she lay awake in her room, looking out at the stars from behind the canopy covering her bed. Hugging tightly the stuffed toy her cousin made for her, Margaret Anne lay awake for the next hour and a half, pondering her role in society and life.  
  
Oh Gwenydd, how I wish you were here to talk to....  
  
Gwenydd. Her favorite cousin, only 3 years older. When they were younger, they'd call each other on the StellarComm from across the neighborhood late at night, careful not to wake their parents as they talked and giggled and listened. But now, Gwen was on Davo, too far away to make the calls without her father's accountant noticing the charge. And, just now becoming comfortable as a 15 year old girl, Margaret Anne found she needed her cousin more than ever. But with several hundred lightyears between them, the stuffed bunny Gwenydd had made for her would have to suffice.  
  
She hugged the toy rabbit close and stared out at the stars, waiting for morning.

**Author's Note:**

> The title of the fic is partially based on the Delenn/John Sheridan dialogue:  
>   
> 'I - I used to think there was nothing worse than being all alone in the night.  
>   
> But there is. Being all alone in a crowd.'  
>   
> Other part is from the 1980's TV show Fame and the song "Alone in the Crowd" sung by the character Bruno Martelli.


End file.
